


Yet Another Fic Where Elsa Gets Gay With A Fire-Themed Princess, But This One Is Pretty Good Overall

by nanimo_nagi



Category: Frozen (2013), Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Magic-Users, Movie: Frozen (2013), Post-Frozen (2013), Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21612937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanimo_nagi/pseuds/nanimo_nagi
Summary: Anna and Kristoph got their happily-ever after, and the Kingdom of Arendelle is safe for a time. Elsa can focus on being queen... or can she? While she's happy enough on her own, curious feelings start to stir when an exile from a southern kingdom storms into her land. Neva is a princess with powers similar to Elsa's, but they burn rather than freeze. And unfortunately, she's the prime suspect of a series of recent arsons. Elsa's strong enough to fight a dragon, but can she come to trust one?
Relationships: Elsa (Disney)/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 73





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I dumped this out of my brain a few months after the first movie came out and then never did anything with it. Now six years later Frozen 2 is out so it seems like a good a time as any to throw this out there. Enjoy.

Summer, while considered by some to be the longest season of the year, always has an end. 

And so it did in the Kingdom of Arendelle, as Autumn bowed its leafy cloak to Summer’s departure, and it in turn made a hasty retreat upon the advent of Winter (due to having already shed its colorful clothes). And so the land was once again covered in snow and ice- though by only means natural and not magical, to the relief of all the Kingdom’s subjects. 

It had been a full half-year since Arendelle had been plunged into an icy respite by its Queen’s powers, and subsequently thawed. The land and the people had enjoyed a time of peace, prosperity and goodwill; the castle gates had remained open, according to Elsa’s promise, and its inhabitants had never before seen it so full of light and life. 

Now, in this chilly time, The Queen’s powers were no longer needed to create an instant skating rink in the castle’s courtyard or to provide materials for childrens’ midsummer igloos. And so, Elsa was now looking out through the delicately-frosted glass at the glowing lights of the city she cared for so fondly. Her companion in the room was a walking, talking snowman of magical origins- he called himself Olaf, and he liked warm hugs. 

Olaf had just come in from playing with some kids in the courtyard- he still had snowballs stuck all over him, giving him the appearance of having contracted a serious case of snow-mumps or something equally frightening. However, he quickly cured himself by pushing the excess snow into his body. 

“Queen Elsa! You missed a terrific battle. Those kids are pretty fast, even when they’re covered in all those layers of cloth- I swear, I can’t imagine how you people move around in those things. I only wish they didn’t keep using my body for their ammunition when they run low- I guess they just wanna piece of me, ya know?” Olaf crawled up onto the window seat to see what Elsa was seeing. “The castle’s so quiet now, though. Where are Anna and Kristoph? And Sven too. I haven’t gotten any nose kisses recently…”

Elsa laughed quietly and patted the snowman’s head. “Olaf, I’ve told you before. They’ve gone off to visit the villages of Kristoph’s people, far in the north. They’ll be gone for a few weeks at most.”

Olaf’s face fell a bit, his carrot sagging. “Oh. Yeah, I knew that… Maybe I just didn’t hear. Snow in my ears, y’know…”

Elsa gave him an indulging smile. “And you said you would stay behind to keep me company, which I greatly appreciate.” 

Olaf hopped up and gave her a salute. “Of course, my Queen! I am your humble snowy servant, your frigid friend, your powdery pal, your cryogenic companion…”  
The door to the room opened to admit a servant carrying a tray of hot tea. “My Queen! Goodness, there’s no fire going in the fireplace and you’re without any blankets! It may be a fine temperature for Sir Olaf there, but surely you’re uncomfortable?”

Elsa received the tea from the servant and returned to her position at the window. “It’s quite alright. The cold… well, you know.” Her smile frosted the glass. “But a fire would be fine, thank you.” 

“Speaking of fire,” said the servant, poking at the one that had roared into being after a few minutes, “Has Your Majesty heard the terrible rumors coming up from the South?” 

“Terrible rumors? Fire?” Elsa removed her attention from Olaf, who had insisted on trying some tea, and was now left with the worst case of “intestinal leaks”… 

“Yes, My Queen… We have had several merchants in the town speak of violent, raging fires that erupted in an instant, in cities all across the Main Land. No one knows the cause, but the word most frequent on everyone’s lips is…” The servant’s own lips quivered to try and finish the sentence. 

“Is?” Elsa leaned forward.

“a… dragon.” 

The flames in the heath guttered suddenly, as if flinching at the word, causing the shadows along the walls and ceiling to shake and shiver with fear. 

Elsa let the chill along her spine last only for a moment. “Dragons? No. There are lots of wondrous things in this world- trolls, maybe, and… magic…” she looked down at her own hands. “But dragons belong in the pages of fairy-tale books. Fire has many causes- it sounds far more like the work of an arsonist than a mythical beast.” 

The servant’s head bobbed rapidly in agreement. “Of course, of course, Your Majesty. No one as wise as you would believe such fanciful tales…”

“Yeah!” Olaf stepped up, having gotten all the tea out of his system. “And besides, I’m pretty sure no ‘dragon’ is a match for the powers of our good Queen, here. She’ll freeze that thing solid in no time and then sink it into the ocean! If ice sank, that is. Maybe it would. How heavy is a dragon?”

The servant gathered the empty teacups and made to exit. “Your subjects have complete confidence that you can keep us all safe, My Queen. Which is fortunate… Because, arsonist or dragon or whatever else it may be, the rumors also say that the incidents are heading further and further north… in our direction.” 

Elsa was quiet for a moment, with both the servant and Olaf watching her. She extended her hand with a clenched fist turned upwards, and when she opened it a flurry of ice swirled about her palm. They crystallized into a perfect miniature ice sculpture of a dragon- it was so detailed one could even see the scales of its skin and the ripples of its leather wings. She carried it over to the window, which she opened, and reached out as if it was a bird ready to take flight. At that moment, the sculpture quickly reverted back into a whirl of ice crystals and flew off to join the other winter breezes of the night. 

Replacing the latch on the window, Elsa said, “You have my word as your Queen that no destructive fires shall burn the homes of Arendelle. Even if a fire-breathing dragon wishes to come and cause havoc here, it will quickly learn that there are some dragons that can breathe ice too…”

The servant gave her a warm smile and a bow before shutting the door. “You have far too kind of a heart for a dragon, your Majesty. And far more beauty as well.”   
Olaf turned to Elsa. “What’s a dragon look like anyways? Does it have antlers like Sven? Or hooves like a horse? Does it smell as bad as Kristoph?” 

Elsa laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know myself, Olaf. I’ve only read about them. I’m sure Anna could come up with a fantastic description of one…” Her smile finally faltered a bit. 

Olaf took notice. “Ohh. You miss her, don’t you? Honestly, her and Kristoph. What a couple of love-birds! Flying up north for the winter and leaving us all alone. Why didn’t they just get married here?”

“Birds fly south for the winter, Olaf… But they’re taking it slow right now. They might work well together, but we don’t want this engagement to turn out like Anna’s last one, right?”

Olaf squinted at her. “To be fair, I’m pretty sure Kristoph isn’t secretly a power-hungry maniac prince who would kill you and Anna for the throne. Well, at least 68% sure right now. I can’t say he’s good at avoiding suspicion.” 

Elsa laughed again. “Yes. Checking for potential murder motives is always important. But those two should get as much happiness as they can just by being together. It’s a wonderful thing when you find someone you can share your life with like that, Olaf…”

Olaf looked at her with wide eyes. “Wow…. And I thought I was the love expert here. So that means you’ve had someone special like that for you before, right?”

Elsa waved him off. “No, no. I mean… I’m the Queen. And I was a princess before that, and Anna and I were pretty isolated in this castle for most of our lives… Well, me especially… But it’s okay. I got used to being alone. It’s enough to have my subjects, and Anna, and my friends.”

“awwWwww!” Olaf gurgled a bit. “Now that’s as sweet as shaved ice. Come over here, Elsa, you get an Olaf hug for that.” Elsa complied, but as she was pulling away she accidentally pulled off Olaf’s head along with her. “Oops! So sorry, Olaf…”

“Not a problem!” said the head in her arms. “This is a couple feet higher than I would usually be able to see anyways!”

Elsa carried her decapitated friend over to the window again, where they looked for awhile down upon the twinkling lights of the snow-covered castletown. Elsa thought of the many families gathered around each of those lights, sitting around fireplaces, snug in beds, eating and drinking together, singing and dancing… And the bonds that held them all together. Love for one’s subjects was different than the intimate love for a single other, particular person, feelings that were not stopped by boundaries of class or family… Love for them was shy looks across the room, a sudden and heart-racing encounter on the street, and long nights turned into dawns sharing thoughts and secrets…. Love for her was exhaustively long and boring letters of marriage intent from princes she had never heard of, who tried to woo her with numbers. Numbers of ships in their fleet, number of coins in their coiffures, number of enemies they had slain in battle. Elsa didn’t care for numbers- she didn’t even bother keeping track of the number of these letters she had thrown away. However, she had stopped receiving any more of them since the incident last summer. Gossip and rumor had no contest in fact when it comes to traveling speed. But, as she said, it mattered little to her. Her status, her powers, and her bad press ensured her solitude. She was a Queen. Any worries, any longings, any loneliness… it was her burden alone, to keep hidden.

Conceal… don’t feel. Don’t let it show.


	2. Chapter Two

Winter was not the high time for trade in Arendelle- nevertheless, a few small ships did find its way in and out of her port. It was also not the high time for tourism, but a small vessel from the Main Land, normally reserved to shipping fresh food and supplies, had an extra passenger tucked away in its hold. She disembarked and stood on the pier, watching her breath flush white in the air. Her thin, ragged cloak offered little comfort against this country’s winter weather- she still shivered as she wrapped herself tighter in it. 

“This is a lot colder than I had been expecting…” she said to no one in particular.

“Zis is how it is, ‘ere in Arendelle.” An intimidatingly-tall, broad-chested man with a thick accent had apparently considered himself to be ‘no one in particular’. “But ze cold is good, yes? Just in time for my Big Winter Blowout- hats, scarves, mittens, and festive hand-made sveaters knitted by cute little grandmuzzers!” He presented one such sweater, made from enough wool to keep a whole flock of sheep warm and garishly decorated with far more reindeer than Santa had ever employed. 

The girl gave him a nervous smile. “It looks… stifling. I mean smothering- I mean, I don’t have any more money, sorry.” She hurried off the pier before the man could try to sell her anything else. 

“If vou change your mind, come to Vandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna, zee store with an auschentic family atmosphere! Vell, the Trading Post has zee auschentic atmosphere and zee Sauna has zee autschentic family…”

The girl made snowy tracks into the center of the castletown, stopping to rest outside of a cheery-looking tavern. It looked like a good place for a hot meal and respite from the winds (she did have a few coins left, despite passing on the sweater). And yet, she hesitated, peering through the window at the warmth and cheer already enjoyed by the patrons inside. She was in a comfort mood, but not a people mood. Certainly not a complete-strangers-from-another-country mood. After a couple of minutes of deliberation, she decided to head towards the market stalls to see if there were any cheap leftovers from the noon sale. But before she could get on her way, the side door to the tavern opened and a hardy woman in a grease-stained apron appeared to put out some waste. Her motherly eyes caught sight of the figure huddled against the wind and accosted her before she could slip away. 

“My goodness! What’s a young girl like yourself doing out in this horrid cold! Don’t bother chattering those teeth dear, I know just what you need, come inside now…” 

Any of the girl’s objections fell on deaf ears as she was herded through the bustling kitchen and out into the tavern area, where she was set down at a table. “Stay right there, I’ve got hot grog coming for you in just a moment!” The woman hurried off again, leaving the girl trapped within the noisy, jovial scene. Fortunately only a few people had noticed her entrance, and she drew up the folds of her cloak again to keep any attention off of her. 

A thick wooden bowl full of some steaming liquid was brought down a bit too close past her face, making her jump back a bit as it slapped the table. “Best meal you can get for this kind of weather,” proclaimed the matron. “Now now there dear, you should get out of that ratty old traveler’s robe and warm up a bit!” 

The girl anticipated the woman’s hand reaching for her hood, but wasn’t quick enough to dodge the grasp that had raised five little children over two decades. The hood fell back, and the matron drew away suddenly in surprise, whispering “oh my…”

It was hard to tell what she was most surprised about- perhaps the girl’s skin, a brazen olive complexion that probably seemed impossibly dark next to these people’s paleness. Or her jet-black hair that now fell down past her shoulders, badly in need of combing and care. The eyes were a good bet- even back in her home country, the girl’s eyes drew remarks about the warm light that danced about within the dark brown hues, like sparks from a spitting fire. All put together, she was nothing like most of them had seen before; heads turned towards her in a wave that crossed to the corners of the room, and conversations dropped onto tables as fast as forks and spoons. The girl felt herself growing hot- it prickled through her face, her arms, her fingers. She clenched them in the folds of her cloak, trying to keep it from spreading. 

She was staring fixedly down at her knees, but she couldn’t block out the excited ruckus that had broken out all around the tavern. Remarks about her appearance, sudden questions, assumptions and hearsay. It happened every time- it always started like this, but she didn’t want it to end the way it did every time. She was getting hotter, though- as if she was sitting right next to the fireplace. All the voice and the noise swirled together in a murky, feverish haze that seemed intent on squeezing, stifling her in something too thick and warm and uncomfortable- there was no way out, she was sweating, she couldn’t cool off- it was too hot, she was too hot- it was going to happen again

The large doors of the castle’s dining hall swung open. 

“Your Majesty!” A guard hurried forth, presenting himself to Elsa, who was in mid-meal with Sir Olaf and a few other guests. “Urgent report! A sudden fire has broken out at a tavern in the town- several other houses have begun to burn as well!”

Conversation stopped dead. Scared eyes turned to the Queen, who was on her feet. “The rumors… Is anyone injured?”

“Only a few, but no lives threatened, yet.”

Terror-stricken whispers floated up from the table. “It’s here!” “Already?” “I thought we were safe!” “It’s already begun…” “What has?” “The… dra-”

“The dragon?” Elsa spoke the word loud, drawing all attention back to her. “Nonsense. I assume no one has reported seeing any dragons land in our city yet?” 

The guard blanched a bit. “N, no, Your Highness, not yet. The cause of the fires is currently unknow-”

“Your Majesty!” The first guard was interrupted by a second, entering so quickly they almost clashed their armor together. “A more-urgent report! The cause of the fires is currently known!” 

The hall fell silent again, and Elsa raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Really? So the dragon has been found?” 

The guard made a bow. “Not quite a dragon. Just as Your Majesty predicted… we caught ourselves a savage arsonist.”


	3. Chapter 3

The girl felt herself being dragged up snowy stone steps; the bumps brought her back to herself. She felt the cold again. And she could already smell the smoke… Rough hands held her as she was jolted to a halt, and a massive pair of oaken doors opened into the courtyard of a castle. There was a waiting audience; servants and townsfolk wearing winter shawls and overcoats, staring curiously and fearfully at her, like a wild beast brought in on a leash. 

She was dropped to the icy flagstones and could only push herself to her hands and knees before she sensed the tips of spears pointed at her back. Ahead of her, the crowd parted and a young woman entered the scene. She could be none other than the Queen- even devoid of crown, there was no mistaking her air of regality and the hushed reverence that everyone paid to her. At this moment, the girl saw no kindness or mercy in this woman’s eyes; she wore a mask that was prepared to pass swift judgment. 

Behind the girl, one of the guards bowed and spoke to the Queen. “This is the arsonist. She fled the building shortly after starting the fire, and then went on to spread the blaze to several nearby houses.”

The Queen nodded. “Are all the fires under control? Are the people safe?”

“The fire’s spread has been stopped, Your Majesty. We lost no lives today, thankfully.” 

The icy complexion of the Queen seemed to soften just a bit at this news. “Good…”

The guard stepped forward, wagging his spear uncomfortably close to the girl’s face. “We’re sure we got the culprit, though! Plenty of witnesses, many of them here already!” 

There was a sudden clamor as many of these witnesses attempted to testify all at once. They were instantly quelled by a wave of the Queen’s hand. Finally, she met the girl’s eyes and spoke directly to her. 

“Who are you and where do you come from?”

The Queen’s eyes were not only a frosty, clear blue, they seemed to catch the light and scatter it wherever her gaze went, the same way snowflakes do to a lamp in the dark night. They so mesmerized the girl that she forgot to answer before she earned a sharp tap with the guard’s spear-end. 

“No one of importance. I’m a traveler without a home.” 

This caused more murmuring, but the Queen pressed on.

“Why did you start the fires?”

The girl lowered her head and tried to decide what answer to give. None seemed any better than the others, so she decided on the one closest to the truth.  
“… I didn’t mean to.”

The murmur swelled. “Ah ha!” the guard next to her said. “That’s no denial of guilt, that’s not! Didn’t _mean_ to, she says! And how exactly do you not mean to start a bunch of fires all over the town-"

“Enough, please.” The Queen interjected at this point. “What method did she use to start the fires?”

This question brought no sudden burst of conversation. Even the guards remained silent, until one of them was pressured to say, “Well…. We’re… not exactly sure, Your Majesty. That is to say… She was definitely seen starting them all, but… A search revealed no matches, oil or anything of that sort.”

The Queen’s thin eyebrows raised. “Really? That leaves us with a mystery, then. How does one start a fire with no kindling or match?”

A woman pushed her way to the front of the spectators; it was the matron of the tavern. “Your Majesty! She needed none. I saw it, I was right there… All of a sudden… I can’t explain it, but all of a sudden, she just… burst into flames!”

All eyes turned to her. Another couple people spoke up. “’Tis true, Yer Majesty, I’d saw it! Right ‘cross the bar I was, when it happened! She’d just be sittin’ there and all at once th’ table just be dancin’ with flames! Never seen anythin’ like!” “Aye, t’was as if she summoned it forth from nowhere!” More people’s voices joined the chorus. “No, that’s just impossible! Too far gone into your drink, you were! Fire needs a source!” “Well then you explain it! I know what I saw- believe what you want, I believe my eyes!” “Preposterous!”

Even the Queen was having some trouble restoring order by this point. However, a couple of surprised yells from the crowd interrupted everyone’s arguments as people stumbled apart to let through a mossy boulder that rolled on its own accord into the middle of the gathering. It slid to a stop and uncurled itself into a squat old woman made of stone, wearing fronds of woven grass and a string of crystals round the neck. Her mere presence quieted the gallery; when she spoke, her words were measured and weighty. 

“All fire does have a source. But, there are many sources in this world, some which are unknown to our culture. Those who can produce fire with just a movement, or a thought have no need for… conventional means.” 

The troll woman’s vague implications brought on an ominous, foreboding feeling to the courtyard, as if everyone had stopped to listen for the same sound.   
Out of everyone, the Queen looked the most affected. She cupped her elbows in her hands and stared just above the girl’s hunched back. “Are you saying…”

“Yes.” The troll woman waddled over to the girl, who withdrew as much as the spears allowed her- she had never believed before this moment that such creatures actually existed. The troll reached out a hand, just a couple feet from the girl’s face, and whispered a word that was lost to the wind. A small plume of flame popped into the life in the space between them. A collective gasp coincided with its extinguishment, as if everyone had blown it out like a candle. The troll turned back to the Queen.

“Magic is always a possibility.” 

More so than at any other time, the girl could feel the change in the crowd’s demeanor. She could hear shuffling as the people closest to her tried to take steps back. Frightened whispers hissed like steam, and no one dared even look directly at her. Only the Queen’s eyes remained fixed on her- the blue eyes that were far different now than when she had first appeared. There were many emotions playing in the light, but they were hard to identify. Fear? Pity? Or was it sadness? 

Finally, one word managed to cut through the veiled moment, like a knife through a curtain- 

“Witch.” 

More knives followed. 

“Sorceress.” “Fey child.” “outsider!” “look at her, it must be so!” “spellworking gypsy of some breed!” “devil’s kin!” “WITCH!”

The girl hadn’t moved, but suddenly she could feel the points of the spears pressed against her back. 

“She needs to go!” “She’s too dangerous!” “Exile her! Get her out!” “No! That’s not enough!” “Imprison her!” “No, we don’t want her here! What if she breaks out with her powers!” “She must be stopped, she’s too dangerous!” “Yes… We must make sure she can cause no more harm…” 

“ENOUGH.” 

A blast of freezing wind drove down upon the crowd, and a flurry of ice and snow snatched up all the words and blew them away. The Queen was standing tall again. There was no question of her authority at this moment. All deferred to her. 

“People of Arendelle. I have failed you once- I said no fires would occur in the town, and yet they did. This was my oversight. I fully understand your desire for safety, and the safety of your family and friends- that is all I wish for as well. That is why… I will take personal custody of this intruder. I will keep her in a place where her powers will do no more harm, that I promise. I wish to solve this problem my own way. I hope my subjects are able to trust my judgment and believe in my resolution. I am your leader and your troubles are my own.”

The Queen’s speech seemed to have had a sobering effect on the crowd, only moments ago being whipped into a frenzy. Most eyes were downcast, looking at shuffling feet and clenched hands. Only a few voices spoke out.

“Of course, Your Majesty. Your people love you as you love us, so we will respect your decision.” “’Tis the Queen’s will, her will be done!” Many others offered murmurs and gestures of general agreement.

The Queen gave a very slight bow. “I thank you all. Now, please return to your homes, and give aid to those whose property was damaged. Make the sure wounded get the care they need. The castle’s staff and supplies are prepared to be of any service required.”

Once the townsfolk had started steaming out the gates, the Queen turned to the guards. “Fetch horses and prepare for a journey up the mountain. We will take her as far as the Frozen Peak.” 

As the girl was getting pulled to her feet, she called out after the Queen. “Hold on! I thought you just spared my life! Where are you planning to take me out in this frozen wasteland?”

The Queen turned back round to her; her eyes had returned to their normal imperious gaze. “You have no reason to worry. I will be building you a castle.”


	4. Chapter Four

“So you think that you have truly found her?” 

The king was leaning forward in his throne apprehensively, staring down at the man before him and the Queen. Before the King could topple right out of his seat, the Queen pushed him back gently by the shoulder. “We hardly dare to believe it,” she said to the man. “All we’ve had are rumors up to this point. You think you know where our daughter, the Princess, has gotten off to?” 

The man bowed deeply and gave a serious nod. “I have been able to separate fact from rumor, Your Grace, and there is no doubt in my mind. However…”

The King leaned forward again precariously. “However? Has something happened to her? Is our daughter alright?”

The man put on a grim face. “I do not know. She is headed towards a Kingdom up north by the name of Arendelle. Their lands are ruled by a sorceress- a Queen who commands the powers of ice and snow. She once froze the entire Kingdom and then shut herself away in a palace of ice, leaving her subjects to fend for themselves.”

The Queen shivered at the thought. “How horrible.” The King banged on the arm of his throne. “Indeed! You’re saying our daughter is headed straight into the clutches of this… Snow Queen?” 

“That is my assumption, yes. That is why, Your Grace, if you care about getting the Princess back, you mobilize your forces by sea as quickly as possible. Get your men armed and on your ships, and put your sails to the wind. As for me- I will enter the Kingdom by stealth in order to locate the Princess. We will coordinate, and once I give the signal, we shall rescue your precious daughter from the clutches of this cruel sorceress.” 

The king clapped animatedly. “Stupendous! Excellent! Lieutenants, you heard the man! Get your troops ready at once!” 

As the other soldiers in the room obeyed the King’s orders, the Queen took the moment to speak. “And, as you said earlier, you wished for the Princess’ hand in marriage upon her successful return?”

The man bowed again. “That is correct, with your royal blessings, your Graces.” 

The King returned his attention to the conversation. “If you can get our daughter back, I see no flaws in her marrying a man of your caliber! And you even said you were a Prince before, right? So there’s no problem there at all!... Come to think of it, what do you call yourself?”

The man came out of his bow and gave the royal couple a practiced smile. “You may call me Hans, your Grace.”


	5. Chapter Five

Elsa set the candle she was holding down on a nearby ice shelf, next to another cold one, before turning to the girl lying just beyond its warm light. “Well? How do you find your new home?”

The girl looked up at her through her ragged, dirty hair with eyes that burned far brighter than the candle’s flame. 

“A bit cold, I have to say.”

She tried to shift her shoulders about, but her arms were not in a position to cooperate, having been rooted to the ground in pillars of ice. She twisted, slipped and slid back into a crumpled posture on the floor before the cold Queen. 

However, the Queen had left her regal mask of judgment back in Arendelle. Her icy features and hard expression were more akin to fresh-fallen snow, more prepared to yield and soften than freeze and cut. She sat herself down on the ground in front of the prisoner, lengthening (but not loosening) her bonds a slight bit with a subtle twist of her magic. The girl accepted this lenience to get herself into a more comfortable position, where the two now stared face-to-face. 

Neither seemed eager to start the conversation, but in the end it was Elsa who found the chill between them to be too much. “So… Neva. Seems like you’ve given up on burning your way out of here? That seems like progress. I really appreciate it, at least.”

Neva snorted. “It’s only pointless because I’m in the middle of a frozen wasteland. If this country were warmer, and maybe a bit closer to the equator, your snow fort would be more of a slush puddle now. “

Elsa’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Seems like poor planning, then, to take a trip up to our icy part of the world, if you had such a desire to lay things to ruin with your powers.” 

This response redoubled the tension on Neva’s end of the conversation. “Yes. Imagine what a crazy it idea it would be if someone like me came here because they DIDN’T want that to happen anymore.” 

“Well, you seemed to have underestimated yourself again, dragon; you managed to leave a fair number of my subjects without homes to protect them from the brutal winter. This might be a stronghold made of ice, but it’s more than they have right now.” 

Neva was taut against her restraints, her body poised to fire a retort back, but she found her lungs drained of air and flame- grief and shame had pierced her more sharply than a spear and she sunk down again, her coal-bright hair shielding her defeated complexion from the Queen. The silence felt crushing. Elsa really didn’t want to be the one to speak first this time, but she knew there was much more to be said. 

“I’m sorry. I let my temper get the better of me. I understand that it wasn’t your intention to cause harm. I imagine your powers have caused you and others a lot of suffering before this.”

“You have no idea…”

“I have some idea.”

By the time Elsa had finished her account of last summer, Neva was sitting up again, the warm light back in her eyes. “Wow. I had no idea… A lot of that story reminds me a lot of, well, me. But, you know, with fire instead of ice. And I wasn’t lucky enough to stay within my own Kingdom…” 

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Your Kingdom? Somewhere in the southern part of the Main Land, you said?”

Neva nodded deeply. “Yeah. Really hot and humid most of the year, lots of farming and animals… But I was born during the dead of winter, during the worst snowstorm of the century. It was so relentless that everyone had holed up in our castle and no food or fresh drink could be supplied, meaning people started getting really hungry. We had used most burnable stuff as insulation, too, so we couldn’t keep a strong fire going… No one believed I would survive to see the spring. But apparently the first spark of my magic kept me warm and saw me through my infancy… Everyone considered it a miracle, and I suppose it was, in a way. My name is to commemorate that event.”

Elsa cocked her head slightly. “Oh? Is it auspicious? Or the name of someone from legend?”

Neva shook her head, a bit embarrassed. “No, nothing like that. In our native language it means 'snow'… Ironic, huh.” 

“S, sorry,” said the Queen between her chuckles. “It really is a nice name, though. Maybe more suitable for me, but still… Though, hey, you said “our castle” in your story. Were your parents really wealthy? Nobles?”

“Ummm… bit more than that… try the King and Queen of the land.”

Elsa gasped. “No… so that means…”

“Yes. Technically, you should be calling me 'Princess Neva'. But don’t. Ever, please.”

“Really though. Apparently there’s something about girls with royal blood that brings on the crazy magic, huh?” Elsa shrugged and smiled, which Neva couldn’t help but return.

“Apparently. Which in turn makes us makes us run away from our homelands in order to protect them…” 

Elsa’s face fell a bit. “Yes… that too. We really are alike, aren’t we.”

Neva cast her gaze far away, where Elsa’s couldn’t catch it again. “Not quite. Your story had a happy ending.” 

Elsa didn’t let the silence sit between them again. “Does that mean… your kingdom is…”

“No, it’s not char and tinder, don’t worry. Though… the fire hadn’t been put out by the time I left.” 

Elsa sat back, holding her own gaze in her hands. “Your parents must still be worried then.”

“Unlikely. Rebellious teenage daughters are one thing, but one that can set fire to whatever she wants is asking to be a disowned child. Why should parents care about an offspring that’s part human, part disaster?”

“Good question… one that I wish I still had the chance to ask.” 

Neva sensed she might have just breached a tender subject unintentionally. She thought she didn’t really care, but at the same time she found empathy for her captor, both regal Queen and a girl barely older than herself who carried that title like a crown to heavy for her head. After all, a Princess still had parents, however estranged they may be.

The silence settled in comfortably once again, pressing its girth down on the two of them. This time, however, Elsa seemed content to let it weigh her down, as she was already quite lost in her own thoughts. Neva sort of wished she could join the pity party, but she hadn’t brought along any repressed memories or issues she felt like drowning herself in. So she figured it was time to try and thaw out her conversation partner. 

She looked around for a new topic, but there wasn’t much variety in her surroundings. “Umm… have to say, though, even though it’s all ice, you still manage to make it look pretty nice… with the sculpting and the decorations and all…”

No reaction. She tried again. “So, does anyone make a joke about your frosty personality?... No? How about ice in your country, though, huh? Can’t imagine anyone would pay for that. Could you imagine someone trying to sell ice here? Pretty funny…”

The silence seemed about ready to roll itself over onto Neva and squash her flat if she didn’t get Elsa to respond to something.

“Ah… um… hey…” What in the world was there to talk about in this place besides cold and ice? What did people even do here?

“…Do you wanna… build a snowman?”

Elsa’s shocked expression confirmed just how stupid that spur-of-the-moment joke had been. But then she started laughing so hard she almost fell over backwards for whatever reason, so Neva was relieved. She even caught on laughing herself, and the cold ice tower seemed just a little bit warmer…


	6. Six

Elsa set the candle she was holding down on the nearby ice shelf, next to the many others that had come as nightly visitors in the previous weeks. 

“Should be more careful, you know. Soon there might be enough to melt this whole castle down if I were to light them.” Neva stood in the candle’s warm light, arms and brow crossed, but her lips loose in a snarky smile. 

Elsa indulged her mood. “How pugnacious of you. The captive getting a bit restless, is she?” 

Neva gave her free arms a shrug. “You’re the one who thawed me out. Better be ready for the consequences if I try and pull a fast one.” 

“I don’t think I have much to worry about,” replied Elsa. “I don’t expect much from you at this point, though. You’d just end up getting… cold feet.”

Neva looked down, to where a thin layer of ice now coated her shoes, making it nearly impossible to budge from where she stood. 

“Oh, ha, yeah, ice pun. I get it. Very good, Your Majesty.” 

As the ice around her feet melted back into a puddle, Neva eyed the collection of candles. “A candle for every day I’ve been here. Makes for a pretty convenient calendar…”

“Yes, sorry about that, I… keep forgetting to take them back when I leave.”

Neva gave her a sideways glance as she collected some wax on her finger from the one active candle. “Not to sound impatient, but… When might I get to leave with you? Your castle down in Arendelle sounds a lot more warm and comfy than this place… no offense to your sculpting and interior decoration skills.” 

Elsa gave her a mildly apologetic look. “Letting you be free in this castle isn’t the same as being free in the one where everyone- well, no, not everyone, but some people- still consider you an arsonist, if not a witch.” 

“But rest assured!” She continued hastily as she saw Neva’s expression sink. “I am doing everything I can. And there has been progress. Great progress, believe me! The day after you came here everyone had their pitchforks and torches out- well, maybe the torches were a bit redundant- but now there’s hardly a broom or a garden hoe being waved in your accusation.”

Neva looked a bit more cheered. “Well, that does sound like good news… In a relative scale…”

“I’m sure you understand. These matters take both time and tact. While I have more than enough authority to ensure you won’t come to harm, I cannot order people to change their feelings or opinions. But a fair bit of the anger and pain has receded as injuries have healed and homes rebuilt. Of course, once the time comes for you to show yourself again, you will have to make honest amends… even back with other people, you’ll have new problems to face.”

Neva’s face twisted bitterly. “That’s all I really get when I’m with “other people”. It might sound selfish, but I’m rather sick of apologizing for things I never meant to do.” The girl stepped over to the frosted-glass window and tried to peer through into the snowy night. “Maybe the best thing for me to do is to move on. One lesson I’ve been taught over and over again is that when no one else cares for you, you just gotta do all the caring for yourself.” 

Something about Neva’s words made Elsa shiver a bit... and the cold usually didn’t bother her. “You’re ready to go back out into the cold again, after spending so long in this castle of ice?” 

Neva gave her a forceful, practiced show of cheerful self-confidence. “Arendelle’s hall might be warm, but I generate my own heat too. I’ll be fine wherever I go…”

Elsa’s face fell. “I see. I would have rather you stayed longer as a guest than a prisoner, though…”

Neva stepped forward, looking to see where the Queen had dropped her gaze. “You don’t have to sound so forlorn. You’re the Beloved Queen of Arendelle. You’ve got an entire kingdom to share your time and space with. How could someone like you ever feel lonely?”

Elsa’s prolonged, pained silence made Neva realize she probably didn’t know the answer to that question. “Sorry if I… treaded on thin ice.” 

“Not only are your puns unoriginal, your timing leaves much to be desired.” 

“They somehow manage to make you smile, though, so I’d say they do their job.” 

“It’s a pity smile. A smile out of pity. For you.” 

“Now that’s cold.”

“Stop it.” 

A few minutes later, the two were sitting in front of a fire that burned merrily in an ice fireplace. The implausibility of this had been briefly discussed and settled on the agreement that elemental magic is indeed a strange and esoteric thing. 

“So, even after the whole 'eternal magical winter thing' was settled and everyone was happy again, something just felt kind of off to me. I couldn’t really understand it; I mean, I’d basically been living in my room for half my life, you’d think I be used to being alone by now… But maybe the feeling started more in earnest when I saw how happy Anna was with Kristoph. It’s like, they’re both happy as individuals- like, in general, they’re satisfied with who they are and what they do… But being together make them actively happier. They get happiness from each other- it’s just spontaneously generated from whatever they do. Now that’s an enviable power. What, snow and ice? Not like we don’t have enough of that to go around already.”

“Or fire,” said Neva, lying on her back and flicking a flame between her fingers. “Don’t forget magical fire.” 

“I don’t know. Being a Queen means being the leader of the people. Everyone behind you, and only one person beside you… But who would want to marry a Queen who’s now famous for freezing her own country solid once before… Not that I’m even looking for someone to become the Arendelle’s new king,” Elsa added, thinking back to the piles of nauseating post from potential Princes. 

“Yeah,” said Neva, who was now popping a spark up and down in the air. “It doesn’t have to be that special someone. Just anyone, right?”

“Well, no… I mean, I don’t know if I mean like a “super” special someone, but I’d like them to be… pretty special… However special that is.” 

Neva missed the spark and it landed on the ice floor, where it started smoking and sizzling. She quickly rolled over and slapped it with her hand, bumping to a stop against Elsa’s arm. “Okay, so semi-special? Someone you can talk to? Someone you can share your feelings with?” 

Elsa brightened up. “Yes! Who I look forward to seeing at the end of the day, when we tell each other about whatever was on our minds, no matter if it was important or inconsequential… Someone who can understand you even when you don’t say anything… Someone you can be really upset at sometimes…”

“But be happy with again by the end of the day,” Neva concluded, her eyes focusing on the tiny crater of water she had been melting into the floor where the spark fizzled. 

“Someone you think of at random moments when you’re apart.” 

“And let you just relax and think about nothing while you’re with them.” Neva added, watching her pool re-freeze into a tiny skating rink. 

“Someone who accepts your faults,”

“As you accept theirs,”

“And because neither of you are perfect apart,”

“the two of you are perfect together”, both girls finished in unison, now sitting up and looking into each other’s excited eyes. 

The fire was content to hiss and crackle through what was otherwise a very silent moment. 

“…Yeah… just like that.” Elsa pulled her gaze away, sure that her face must be a violent shade of red right now. “I mean, not like, that as in whatever just happened- not that anything happened, like, that as in that hypothetical situation that was not just then… um…” 

“No, no, I understand exactly what you mean, you don’t have to say it,” Neva said. She was feeling extremely hot, but it wasn’t like the usual sensation of being about to immolate her surroundings with her magical fire. Well, she sure hoped not anyway. 

“Oh goodness, look at the time!” Elsa consulted a clock up on the wall, made of ice of course.

“But that clock’s frozen-” 

“Don’t you start that again.” 

“I’ll stop now, but no promises on tomorrow night.” 

“Tomorrow night…”

“There will be a tomorrow night… right?”

Elsa got to her feet and looked down at the hand that had suddenly clasped hers. “Yes. Of course.”

Neva retracted her hand and looked away intensely. “I mean… I wouldn’t want my candle calendar to get messed up, you know. Candle…lander. Cand-lander. Calendander?” 

Elsa laughed. “Depending on my other duties, I might be later than normal, but I’ll be here. And if all goes well, we might be able to spend our future evenings in front of a real fireplace, in a real castle. Well, a warmer one at least.” 

Neva looked back at Elsa, the hazy brown connecting with frosted blue. “I’m… looking forward to that.”

Elsa gave her a smile. “So am I.” 

It was already quite late by the time the twinkling lights of Arendelle came into Elsa’s view. Her nightly comings and goings had left a pretty well-worn trail through the snow, but the ice castle was still a good ways away from the city’s borders, to ensure the safety of both her subjects and Neva. It was true that tomorrow the council would finally meet to hear the Queen’s proposal. She would vouch for Neva’s reformation of character and ensure that she would only remain within the royal castle for the time being. 

Elsa understood exactly how unpleasant that confinement could be, but surely it would be better than being locked away in a frozen fortress up on a mountain. She would be around other people… Elsa, namely. Surely she would be happy with that? Or was that just Elsa’s own happiness assuring her that her desires were mutual? Did Neva really mean to leave the country as soon as she was free? 

Ultimately that course of action would be the favorite among most other minds involved. Elsa might have magnified the truth of the people’s general goodwill towards Neva just a bit. It seemed that there was talk of the “flame girl” influencing the Queen in unhealthy ways; it was known how little Elsa was seen around the castle in the evenings. She knew that it was because she was spending so much time with Neva that her re-assimliation was going more slowly than planned. 

Step by step, she told herself. Getting Neva into the Arendelle castle was the first. Once people could actually see that she wasn’t dangerous anymore, things would proceed more smoothly. Then again, how would Neva feel? Understanding the full story, Elsa realized how harshly Neva had been treated when she first came to the kingdom. It had taken many nights for the girl to warm up to Elsa this much… What about to the many others who weren’t willing to give her a second chance yet?   
Elsa let out a sigh that blossomed into a puff of snowy air. She really didn’t need any more problems on her plate at the moment…

“My Queen!” A cry came from down the trail. “Is that you?” A lantern followed the voice. 

“I’m here. What’s the matter?” Elsa addressed the two guards that had reached her. 

“Great trouble, your Majesty! Foreign ships with sails of war have laid anchor in our port! A demand for an audience has been sent!” 

Elsa’s expression hardened back into the regal, icy Queen that vowed to protect her people. 

“Lead the way back. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.”


	7. Chapter Seven

It was already quite late, but Neva was still awake. She had lined up all the old candles in a row and was amusing herself by lighting and extinguishing different ones, watching them pop and fizzle, sometimes in patterns, sometimes randomly. While she knew that she was capable of much more than this in her current state, there was an indulgent pleasure in seeing her fire as something delicate and beautiful, rather than destructive and ravaging. Neva couldn’t tell for sure yet, but she also felt like her control over her powers had improved in the time she had stayed here. She remembered having to re-establish a few of the earlier candles from puddles of wax… 

She wasn’t quite sure how she felt yet about this potentially being the last night she would spend in isolation. Despite being constructed of hard, frozen materials, Elsa had somehow managed to not make it horribly uncomfortable to dwell in. Certainly the removal of the ice shackles had been a great improvement. Neva couldn’t deny that the moment they were off, her head had rushed with the impulse of attacking her foolish captor and escaping… But she had let it pass. She had no desire to harm anyone else, especially not Elsa. And the evenings spent after that one were honestly some of the best she’d had in her entire life. She might get to spend even more time like that if she was allowed back to the castle in Arendelle, since Elsa wouldn’t have to make the hike up the mountain and back… 

But there might also be less time. Elsa was the Queen and there were dozens of other matters needing her attention, all more important than a captive who needed no chains or guard, essentially a volunteer at this point. Everyone else likely still hated her, so Elsa would be Neva’s only friend and confidante, her only source of attention and relief. What would happen if Elsa got tired of her? How much enjoyment could someone get out of a single person? What if Neva’s bad moods made Elsa start avoiding her? What would happen when Elsa eventually found a lover? Wait, why did her mind jump to that? 

No. The only logical solution would be for Neva to take her leave once she was allowed to. Surely the rest of Arendelle would be glad to see her go. But why did she already anticipate it hurting? It was almost the same feeling like leaving home again… And this one wasn’t even on fire. Neva felt trapped again, as it always happened when she was around other people. Her usual solution was to leave, let other people work the problems out- that’s all she was for anyone else, anyway. The only person that needed her was herself. 

But… leaving now felt wrong. It was like rushing out the door right after a meal, not staying for any of the chatter and cheer that followed an after-dinner lull by the hearth. A hearth that had just her and Elsa at it, in a cozy room of that castle, sharing treats and stories for hours uncounted by the clocks on the walls. Yes, as painful as it might be, surely the right thing to do was to at least wait until that fire died down…

A sharp crack evaporated Neva’s warm thoughts. She wheeled around to see a small pile of broken ice laying next to a narrow hole that had been breached in the floor. A gloved hand reached up out of it and grasped the edge, pulling its owner up after it. 

“Whew! Well, that only took way too long. I see her powers haven’t really faded any…” 

Neva gave the handsome-yet-foreboding man an exasperated stare. 

“Um… Not to interrupt, but this happens to be my prison you’re breaking into. I’m not really sure if that counts as home invasion, but it kind of feels like it… Anyway, there’s not much to steal around here, unless you like ice.” 

The man decided to take notice of her at this point and lit up. “My Lady! You could only be Princess Neva.” He slid into a crouching bow. “I have come to rescue you.”   
All of Neva’s witty retorts she had lined up vanished. “Wait… what?” 

Hans was already back on his feet and striding about, eyeing the sealed doors and windows. “Yes, I was sent by the King and Queen, your parents themselves, from your homeland to come and free you from this captivity that the wicked Queen of Arendelle has sealed you in.”

“Wait, wait, wait. I’m still not really sure what’s going on here, but I don’t really think I could be called captive… or that Elsa could be called 'wicked'”. 

Hans turned to her with a mildly irritated expression on his face, like he was talking to a child that didn’t understand his infallible logic. “You can’t be serious. She’s been holding you hostage for these past three weeks in this frigid cell, Mi’lady. Believe me, I have seen her cruelty and wrath first-hand before, you should be happy I was able to arrive when I did.” 

Something connected in Neva’s brain, and she didn’t like what it formed. “Wait. You haven’t introduced yourself yet- a bit rude, I might say- but I think I can guess by now. Do you go by the name of Prince Hans?” 

The Prince’s smile was back in a flash. “Quite so, Princess! I have traveled far and faced many perils in order to win you back from the Ice Queen… and win you as my bride in the process. We’re getting married, you see.”

“What.” All the remaining lit candles behind Neva were extinguished in an instant. 

“That was the promise, anyway. You, me, your kingdom; sorry, OUR kingdom. The wedding will be grand, the ceremony quick, and the decorations ostentatious. Ah, it would have been be rude of me to ask back then, but your parents are roughly how old now?...” 

All the candles were lit again, and quickly melting together in a shower of hot wax that dribbled onto the floor. There wasn’t much left of the ice shelf now. 

“You can stop right there, Your Deluded-ness. There is going to be no marriage, to me. There is going to be no rescue, by you. You are a villain and a traitor whose multiple attempts at regicide were dealt with far too leniently by this country’s fair-hearted rulers. Now I strongly suggest you smash yourself another door to exit from and leave this country… I’ve burned a lot of people before, but I don’t mind burning garbage like you.” 

Hans’ smile never flickered. “Quite the speech there, Princess. Made me a bit hot under the collar… Sorry, do you do puns? I wasn’t sure…”

“You’re one more away from doing a convincing Yuletide log impersonation.” 

“You can quit the with the bluffing, _kid._ I know I’m perfectly safe around you… Because you know, deep down inside, that even if you were to kill someone like me… Elsa would never look at you the same way again.” 

Neva’s stomach lurched. Hans’ grin didn’t change, but the rest of his face writhed with momentary sadistic pleasure. 

“Looks like I was right. Wow, I guess opposites really do attract… In a more literal sense, this time… Okay. Well, I hate to break this to you, I really do- oh wait. Actually, no, I really don’t. You’re not going to be seeing much more of Elsa, once she’s done negotiating your ransom with your Kingdom’s navy.”

Neva’s fire was back. “You’re the one who can quit bluffing. You really think I’d believe that the Royal Navy is here?” 

“Yes, seeing as I have, let’s see, exactly nothing to gain by lying at this point. Besides, how do you think I got here? A lot of swimming?... But how about we focus on the real thing here you don’t want to believe… That your precious Elsa was planning from the start to sell you back to your homeland for a pretty sum.” 

“She wouldn’t.” 

“Wow, that was _weak_. Where’s that conviction I was so attracted to before? But yes, of course, why would she ever see the logic in getting rid of a dangerous criminal that harmed her people in exchange for money she could use to rebuild houses and care for her beloved subjects?”

“But… why would she be so nice to me.”

“Nice? Yes, it was very nice of her to build you this prison of ice way out in the mountains. But maybe what you saw as her kindness and feelings towards you was actually the Queen coming to check up on her golden goose, ensuring that you didn’t try to escape before she could cash you in. After being hated and rejected by everyone else, and then locked away from all human contact, I could see how even the Queen’s practiced act could be seen as 'nice'”. 

Neva found her legs unable to hold up the rest of her shaking body, and she let herself sink to the floor. 

“That’s… not true. It’s not… I know her, and she wouldn’t… do that…”

Standing above her, Hans gave her a look of pity and disgust that might have actually contained a hint of honest emotion. 

“Very convincing argument. But there, there… It hurts, doesn’t it? To be suddenly betrayed by someone you thought was on your side… But from the very start, you were just a means to their end.” 

Hans turned away and made for his hole in the floor. “Welp, feel free to cling on to whatever hope you have, your Deluded-ness. The way I see it, you have a choice now. Stay here, convinced that Elsa has no desire to trade you away for a ship full of gold… Or you can come face the facts down in Arendelle, and decide your own future from there.”


	8. Chapter Eight

The deep morning shades began to spill the first rays of the new day across the mountaintops and down upon Arendelle, where few had managed to find any sleep. The visiting/invading fleet had found themselves thoroughly out of their element and, thinking the snow and cold to be the evil Ice Queen’s pre-emptive strike on them, had docked in the harbor and refused to have any form of communication outside of an Arendelle messenger relaying letters to and fro. This was naturally a long and exhaustive process, coupled with the strong accent of the Mainland navy that somehow carried over into their writing, making each missive a riddle of translation. 

Elsa and her attendants sat back with a sigh as they finished the latest message to the navy and their courier stumbled out of the hall once more (they had tried to relieve the poor man, but the navy was paranoid of imposters and trickery that might be afoot, and so only allowed the original courier onto their ship. Elsa had made note to give the man a raise and a well-deserved vacation after this was all over). 

“Okay,” said Elsa, leaning forward again and pressing her fingertips on the table, “Let’s see if we have this all straight. These people are from the southern Mainland, the Kingdom of… of…” 

The woman to her right shrugged. “We never did manage to decode that word, must be part of their mother tongue.” 

“Ugh. Fine, this southern Kingdom apparently believes that we captured their Princess and have now sent their warships to come and… what? 'tree her?'”

“'Free her', I believe that is, Your Majesty… we decided that symbol makes the 'f' sound, but only with the inverted squiggle-loop on the _left_ side of the letter.” 

Elsa slapped the papers down impatiently. “Fine. But I don’t understand how they knew she was here in the first place. And why do they assume we’ve captured her?”

“Didn’t we though, Your Highness?”

“Ah… um… beside the point. We were supposed to talk about that, before this whole debacle floated in.” 

The doors to the hall opened, revealing a guard. “Urgent News, Your Majesty! The courier has collapsed just short of the docks!”

There were an equal amount of gasps and groans emitted from the table. “Find people to help him the rest of the way there. Get him in the rowboat and paddle him out. They seem to not care as long as they still recognize his mustache.” Elsa pushed her chair back and stood up. “A few of you can go help with that, there’s also a chance they might talk to someone who’s actually bothered to read their chicken-scratch. I’m going to go clear my head for a minute.” 

Elsa paced the floor of one of the castle’s upper drawing rooms, where the windows afforded a wide view of the harbor below, and the couple dozen ships that were now sitting in it, all their bows pointed towards the dock like wolves waiting at the mouth of a rabbit hole. If she had been a bit more of a vindictive ruler, her heart a bit colder, she could imagine how easy it would be for her to puncture the sides of those hulls, acclimated only to the warm waters near the equator, with a jagged, frigid shaft of ice… Each one, plunk, plunk, plunk, and that would be the end of any invasion. But no, diplomacy would have to win out here, to which her control over the frosty elements afforded her little advantage.

Were they only interested in taking Neva back? Would they be satisfied with that? Regardless of how it played out, it seems that Neva staying her any longer would be impossible. Alone in these quarters, Elsa allowed her own selfish thoughts to slip through her Queenly persona. It wasn’t fair- they had been so close to bringing her back to Arendelle where they could stay together… And then this happened. Why was the timing so coincidentally awful? What if Neva wanted to go back though? She couldn’t claim that Elsa had been any kind of gracious host to her… But she had seemed excited about the idea of coming to the castle. Would she want to stay here instead? No, why should she… 

Elsa paced faster, her hands combing through her hair, wishing she could talk to Neva right now. Surely the two of them would be able to sort this out. Make it all better. Right now she was alone and had no answers and she couldn’t get that tapping noise out of her head. She was the Queen, she had to be composed, dignified, wise, but she wasn’t creative enough to think of a solution… Anna was the creative one, but she was off with her reindeer-boyfriend, confident that her older sister had everything under control when she really didn’t, ever, have anything correct and she couldn’t make it correct and WOULD YOU STOP WITH THAT TAPPING  
Elsa lashed out at the window, the source of the insipid noise, almost blasting the shutters off with a stream of frigid air. The room was silent again for a moment, before a voice came from just outside the window, on the balcony. 

“Sorry… Bad time? Should I make an appointment?” 

“Wha-… Neva?”

The girl slid inside the window, shaking off her cloak that had just been thoroughly dusted by powder. “Whoops… I don’t know how you people handle all this snow, you gotta have a doormat at every window and mousehole…” She wasn’t able to say anything more before Elsa caught her in an embrace. 

“I can’t believe it. How did you know I was here, though?”

Neva curled her face a bit deeper into Elsa’s shoulder in the hopes that she couldn’t see or feel her blushing so much. “You’ve told me so much about the castle already… particularly this room, that it wasn’t much trouble matching story and reality. You left out the part about the ugly cookoo-clock collection though.” 

Elsa finally pulled away and Neva fixed her gaze on said ugly cookoo clocks. “Um, but, so how mad are you that I left the ice castle without your okay?”

“What? Never mind that, that’s not important. You found just the right time to break out, actually, because our harbor is filled with your country’s ships, which they are refusing to get off of.”

Neva’s insides lurched again. She stepped back and looked out the window, seeing the flags of her home country billowing in the snowy breeze. “Yeah… So, um… are you going to do it?” 

“Do what, exactly?”

“The ransom?”

“…the what, exactly.” 

“The one you’re offering- or being offered- in exchange for me?” 

Elsa closed her eyes and rubbed at her temples. “I’m not following you. Please don’t start talking like those soldiers out there… I haven’t ever heard of any ransom. They’re here to take you back, and I think they’re more interested in giving us forged steel than gold.” 

Neva’s mouth fell open. “So there never was a ransom?”

“No… where did you get this idea?”

“So you don’t want to get rid of me?!”

“No! I assume that means you don’t want to be rid of me?”

Neva was the one to surprise Elsa with a hug this time. “As if! I can’t believe it! Well, maybe I can… That Hans managed to convince me and come all the way down here…”

“What. Hans. What did you say.” Elsa’s arms grabbed at Neva’s shoulders, her voice turned serious. “You do mean Prince Hans?”

Neva nodded, a bit fearful at Elsa’s sudden change back into regal-Queen mode. “He broke into the ice castle after you left and tried to “rescue” me. When that didn’t work he manipulated me to make me think you were holding me for ransom…” 

“Oh god…” Neva fell back into Elsa’s untensed arms. “I’m sorry. I had no idea… But I do now. A very good one, of how this whole problem came about in the first place.” 

Elsa released Neva and whirled to the door. “I need to alert the guards and the staff at once. From there I’ll go out and try to start clearing up this great misunderstanding.” Before she left the room, Elsa turned back to Neva. “Once I’ve made the situation clear to everyone involved, it will be up to you to come out and talk to the navy. With the both of us working to untangle this matter, I think we shall find peace before the breakfast bell.” Elsa flashed her one last smile before putting on her mask again. “And let’s eat together, here in this castle.” 

Neva sent the smile back at her. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll be waiting for your signal.”

Alone in the room, Neva started recognizing things that she had never actually seen before this moment. The heavy rocking chairs in the corner, the fancy whale-oil candles on the dresser, the quilt collection, the wide, low hearth… She already loved the room. She couldn’t wait to explore the rest of the castle… Though it probably wasn’t safe until Hans was caught. But why would he be here, right in Elsa’s stronghold, instead of fleeing for his life, now that his plan was ruined? Neva hated the even the thought that his presence would stain the wonderful home that she could spend time in from now on. 

“After all,” she muttered to herself, sliding her hand across the cold stone of the mantelpiece, “what would he have to do here anyways?”

Neva felt frozen all of a sudden. Her stomach lurched again, but not in the same way as before. She noticed something down below her. Not too far down… a red, watery spike, tapering to a cruel point that now touched the stone mantel in front of her, and a horribly familiar voice from behind. 

“Oh, the same thing as always… just here to kill a Princess.”


	9. Chapter Nine

All of Elsa’s breaths were caught in her chest as she flung herself back into the castle and made straight for the balcony room. Her mind hadn’t managed to sort of the events of the moment- all she knew was that Neva was hurt, or worse. Everything had been going well; when she had gotten down to the docks, she had found the courier with a second wind, and news that the navy had finally agreed to send envoys of their own to land. But, before the ships had been able to put their rowboats in the water, a yell had come from the top of the castle where it overlooked the bay. With the aid of spyglasses Prince Hans could clearly be seen, if not very clearly heard from that far away. However, the wind carried his terrible message enough for it to invade the minds of all… _treachery._

The Queen had murdered the royal Princess. The proof was clutched in Hans’ arms, a limp figure with a long icicle pierced right through her chest. Horns had sounded from offshore, and the heavy grating of anchors being hauled up. There was only one possible outcome now. Before Elsa had given herself over to her single-minded mission, she had ordered the guards to get everyone as far away from the port as possible, as many into the castle as possible. She would return.   
Elsa blasted open the door to find Neva in a crumpled heap on the rug, now stained in red. Hans was absent, unsurprisingly. But he was not a priority for Elsa at this moment. 

“Oh god… no…” Elsa fell to her knees, her silky blue dress quickly soaking in crimson. “Neva… Are you still there? Please…” 

There was a rumbling outside in the corridor and in rolled (and un-rolled) the troll shaman, with Olaf cold on her heels. She shuffled Elsa aside and muttered heavy words over the body of the young Princess. She turned to face the other two.

“Her last breath has not yet left her. Not all is lost.” 

Elsa crawled forward again. “What can we do? How are we supposed to remove that icicle? If we do she’ll bleed away in seconds!” 

“This wound is too grievous to heal right now. We do not have what it takes to bring her back.” 

Elsa’s flight of hope sank back into despair. “What?... What do we do then?”

“We can give her time, no matter how little. As harsh as it is, the Queen has many more lives to care for right now than just this one.” The troll woman’s stern look shook Elsa out of her daze. 

“I know. But how do we give her more time?”

“Life is fast seeping away from the girl’s heart. The flow must be stemmed. You… My Queen, have the power to do this… terrible as the power may be.” 

Elsa’s expression crumpled as she realized the troll’s meaning. 

“No… I can’t…”

“You must. And now, there can be no more hesitating. As soon as I remove the icicle with my magic, be prepared to use yours.” 

Elsa put both her hands close to Neva’s broken heart. The girl’s eyes were slightly open, but staring past Elsa’s own. As Elsa gathered the cold inside her, she hoped that her thoughts would somehow find their way to the life still remaining inside of Neva. _Please, don’t let go now… I will find some way to bring you back, I promise…_

“Now!”

With a blinding blue flash and a sharp chill in the air, the operation was done. Neva had let out a short gasp and several twitches before a thin coat of ice had settled in place over her chest. The warmth left in her body quickly fled, her beautiful olive skin gone a sickly shade of grey. 

The troll shaman backed away. “That shall keep her. I will go seek council immediately to see what wisdom our race has to bring the poor girl back to our world.”

Elsa had been completely silent after she had done her magic. She rose to her feet, where the trails and splotches of blood stood out fully all along her dress. 

“Olaf. Please stay here with her. Keep her safe.” 

The old woman nodded. “The rest of your people need you, Your Highness. Your country is about to be engaged in war.” 

The window burst open again, letting the air inside the room, having just plummeted to frigid temperatures, outside to warm up in the howling winter weather. The ruler of Arendelle, master of elements, the Ice Queen, billowing like an incoming storm cloud, made her way to the door. The tears that had run down her cheeks were now frozen and glassy. 

“I shall make this the shortest war the world has ever seen."


	10. Chapter Ten

In the echoing silence that followed after Elsa had quite literally stormed out, Olaf uncomfortably took a seat next to the comatose Neva. He looked around, a bit unsure of what he was supposed to doing, besides watching her. She wasn’t exactly doing much at the moment. 

“Aaauuhhmm… Well…” Olaf tapped his twigs together. “Say. I don’t really know if you can hear me, Miss Princess Neva, but I suppose I’ll talk out loud here, just in case… This is my first time meeting you… As you might have guessed, I’m Olaf, and, true to any rumors you’ve heard, I do like warm hugs. But, I suppose that part will have to come later. Anyway. I don’t really know how you feel about our Queen Elsa- I mean, after she locked you in a big ice tower far away in the mountains for weeks, you’re probably not the biggest fan. But, I think you should know, that, for a prisoner, Elsa really cares about your wellbeing and happiness… It’s sort of all she’d talk about recently when she was here… About how you were funny, and charming, and witty, and thoughtful, and a bunch of other things I didn’t bother to remember. There were a lot of ‘em. In any case, what I’m trying to convey, to you, is that Elsa has been more happy and lively with you here than I’ve ever seen her before, and if you die here, I don’t know if she’ll ever be happy again.”

Olaf picked himself up and shuffled around the spot where Neva lay. When her body was cold and still, she seemed a different person altogether. Her usual aura of warming passion and grace were tempered to nearly nothing, like the last blue coals on a fire.

Olaf’s nose drooped a bit. “Before you came, everyone was talking about a dragon… I didn’t know what a dragon was, but I was sure it had to be something impressive, and powerful, and potentially really scary. Elsa can be like that too, but I don’t think she wants to be. For the sake of saving everyone in Arendelle, and probably to save those navy guys on the ships too, she’s using her magic in a way she hates. I think she needs her dragon right now, to help her make things right…”  
Neva’s eyelids fluttered a bit. 

Somewhere far, far away, somewhere lost and cold and empty, Neva’s mind was huddled, trying to keep the last of its warmth. She didn’t know where she was, but she didn’t care. No one was going to try and hurt her here, so it was better. No matter who she met, it always turned out the same in the end. No one wanted to befriend a disaster. No one wanted to care for a wildfire. That’s why she was better off alone. Everyone wanted her to be alone. She wanted to be alone… didn’t she?   
She knew that something terrible was going to happen soon, to many innocent people. But those people had almost killed her, why should she care about them? Why should she care about her own people, who probably came just to capture her and put her in a different prison? But… If she didn’t care. Really, truly, unreservedly didn’t care about any of them… Why was she still thinking about it so much? 

_You do care._

The voice came from her. She didn’t speak it, but it was her voice. It was as quiet as a smoking cinder but as deep and echoing as the growl of a massive beast. 

“Why do I have to care. Caring hurts me too much.”

_Caring hurts all. When fire and flesh meet, flesh will burn and retreat. Then fire will fail._

“So why does fire still exist?”

_You know. Fire is Protector and Destroyer. Beginner and Ender. Flesh and Fire live together in this dark, vast world. Flesh will always be burned, so that it can be warmed._

“If people like fire then why do they hate me.”

_You are flesh and fire, neither one nor other. As long as fire has flesh to care for, Fire must never go out._

“I don’t want to go out.” 

_Then stop being afraid of being burned._

The familiar sensation swept over Neva again; she felt hot, like her body was a furnace, pulsing out waves of heat, soon she would ignite and everything would burn again- but the sensation was also different. She didn’t feel like it was just _happening,_ like it always did before. She had made it happen this time. This time, she decided what burned. She knew just where to start.

The prows of boats slammed against the docks of Arendelle, and soldiers clad in thin coats piled out of them, bearing curved steel. There was no one to meet them; a few shouted and pointed up at the towering mountain range above the city. The snow at the peaks appeared to be blowing off, sliding down through the thick evergreens and lifting like a massive cloud. It was headed straight for them, joined by a wind that had shrieked in from the coldest Northern skies, clad in armor of hail and cape of sleet. The very air seemed to turn against the foreign soldiers as it nearly froze in their lungs and crawled from their mouths in big blobs of mist. The marshal of all these wintery forces strode towards them now, a figure lone but more intimidating than an entire army. 

“Captain! There’s no victory here for us! The witch will turn us to frozen statues any moment!” one of the front line called out in their own tongue, his eyes fixed on the blade in his hands that had frost crawling along it. 

“Steady, all of you! She may fight like no human, but she still bleeds like one! Let our Princesses’ life not be lost in vain! Now, drop your blades and load your bows. If we manage to surprise her with just one, that will be enough…” 

Elsa saw the soldiers scatter about for cover, resorting to ranged tactics. Still she ventured forward. She let the cold wind carry her voice. “Hear me, brave soldiers! No one needs to die today! Save for the one who tricked us all. I wish to harm none of you, but I have a greater wish to protect my own people.”

An arrow came whizzing at her from behind a stone wall. It met with a stalagmite that popped up in front of it. 

“If you do not surrender now…” Another arrow was grabbed by the wind in the nick of time. “I will have no choice…” Two more arrows were blasted by ice. “other than to force you to!” An arrow came in just on the edge of her peripheral vision; it was too close before she had noticed it…

Elsa felt something hot scratch her face. Slapping at it, she saw ash on her hands. The arrow had been immolated mid-flight.

Most of the soldiers’ attention was now fixated on something behind the Queen. She turned herself and felt a huge wave of heat beat against her aura of cold; its source had soared down from the castle on wings of wild fire, that now curled about her like tendrils of searing lace. 

“It’s not possible…” two different languages uttered in unison. 

“By the behest of the Royal Family, with the power of command over this Navy that serves the Fair Crown, I order a ceasefire at once!” 

The soldiers dropped their weapons and fell to one knee. Neva stepped over to Elsa, the disparate temperatures meeting between them to form a temperate, balmy thermal. 

“Looks like you got both the Princess and the Dragon, huh?”

Elsa stepped forward to take her hand, the warm wind making her blonde hair dance with Neva’s shadowy locks. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”


	11. Chapter Final

Neva had thought she had never let go of Elsa’s hand, but for some reason she felt her body was in a different place suddenly. She opened her eyes, and saw the ceiling of the balcony room. She looked over and saw Elsa, whose gaze was wandering about in the hearth’s flames. Neva must have squeezed her hand a bit, because Elsa suddenly looked back at her and smiled again. 

“Welcome back. You slept far past breakfast, you know.” 

“Am I in time for lunch?”

“It depends on which day’s lunch you refer to. You’ve been asleep for quite awhile.”

Neva tried to move around a bit and found it was something the rest of her body strongly objected to. 

A gravelly voice came from somewhere below the edge of the bed. “Be still, youngling! When your wounds complain it’s best to listen.” 

Neva lay back into the position that made her feel the least amount of throbbing pain. “Ugh. I thought I was fine… Back when I woke up…”

The troll shaman popped her head up with the aid of a nearby stool. “Fine? You were impaled and then had your heart frozen, and subsequently melted it with your own released power. You are not ‘fine’ and will not be ‘fine’ for much a while longer.” 

Elsa leaned forward to readjust the covers. “It’s true- Once you managed to stop the conflict your power waned and you fell into critical condition again. The hours after that were touch and go… Even a dragon has her limits.” 

Neva managed a painful sigh. “Well, I guess you have to fill me in then…” 

“Only one small ship from your nation has remained here, the rest have begun the return journey, stocked with provisions. Hans is on board with them as well, but in chains. Despite all the havoc he has caused in Arendelle, it was decided that his crimes were deserving of a larger court and jury. His case might be the beginning of a cooperative alliance between our two Kingdoms…”

“I’m surprised. You let him go a second time?” 

“Much of what that man’s heart needs to reform is what he will never deserve because of his actions… forgiveness, understanding, patience and even love.”

“Saying it that way makes you almost pity him.”

“I think we should allow him that much, at least. He is pitiable through and through, if there really is some little part of his soul that hasn’t given over to hatred.” 

Neva watched the flame’s shadows dance on the ceiling. “Maybe I can pity him for that, then… I think I’ve been there before.” 

Elsa’s hand squeezed hers. “You’re nothing like him. You deserve all those things. I’m willing to give you them, at least.”

Neva glanced sideways at her. “All of them?”

Elsa’s face reddened and she opted for an awkward, but comfortable silence. 

The troll woman rolled her eyes and finished dabbing medicine on Neva’s forehead. “As if the fever wasn’t making you hot enough. Whatever the Queen sees fit to give you, it is best to wait until you are in a condition ready to receive it, Princess.” 

Elsa cleared her throat. “Anyway. I have a feeling the rest of the citizens will be more willing to accept you now. You ultimately did end up saving them from a potential war.”

“A war with my own people, who came here because of me in the first place…”

“Because of Hans. Trust me, the people of Arendelle are more than glad to give him the blame for this one. Not to mention you also saved their Queen.” 

“Not that anyone saw that part”, Neva muttered into the quilt.

“I made sure that particular detail was heard far and wide here. You can stop worrying so much. Many people here are willing to give you a second chance, if you are ready to give them one.” 

Neva nodded. “I’d like that… But it still sounds like it’ll take some time.”

“Time you have”, said the troll woman. “You won’t be leaving this place in any good condition before the spring thaw. I hope you find this castle comfortable.”

Neva cocked an eyebrow at Elsa. “I think I’ll adapt pretty well.”

Elsa matched Neva’s smirking expression. “I don’t know, it’s pretty chilly here now. You don’t seem like the winter type.”

Neva shifted herself further under the pile of blankets, letting the soft sheets fold around her and leaving her worries in a pile upon the floor. “Well then,” she murmured as sleep gently tugged at her to follow, “I will be counting on the Queen’s hospitality to keep me warm…” 

And with that, Arendelle’s dragon slumbered once more. 

FIN


End file.
